Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary

I applaud this. Being a film student that has had to do a documentary, I didn't thoroughly enjoy it. Smith and Mosier had their subject disappear between pitching and shooting and were left without a project. They turned a disaster into an opportunity and made a fake documentary on the crumbling of their documentary. I think it was a great idea to both save their project and just a fairly original idea, especially for the time (1992).

If you are a Kevin Smith fan, you should check this out to see where he got his roots. Not that there is anything super special about it but it is a fun watch.

This short documentary was made by the now successful producing/directing team of Scott Mosier and Kevin Smith while attending film school in Canada (soon after making Mae Day, Smith would leave film school and begin writing what was to become his first feature "Clerks").

The doc started as a genuine effort by Smith and Mosier to profile a local transsexual. However, he (or she) quit, and the filmmakers, making the best of the situation, chose to document their failed student film and explore "what went wrong." So Mae Day turns into a sort of 5 minute, Canadian version of "Lost in La Mancha."

The film is fairly dull, and Smith makes here an early attempt at the signature self deprecating humor that would become his trademark in forthwith films, but isn't quite genuine in this. However, I'm fairly certain that this was nothing more than homework for the two students and was never really meant to be seen by anyone other than their classmates and teachers. Mae Day is practice, furthermore Smith couldn't have been into it that much in the first place since he left school a week after making it. In fact, not liking Mae Day is probably a good thing because Kevin Smith made it in film school, which he has, on more than one occasion, denounced. We've all handed in reports to the history teacher that we wouldn't want posted on the school bulletin board for all to see. Besides, this is the first film Kevin Smith ever ever EVER made in his life, and by that respect its not quite as bad.

A good thing about this whole thing is that Kevin Smith wasn't trying to be someone he's not with this. He wasn't trying to make a masterpiece. (please God tell me he didn't try!) The film is a mockumentary about making a documentary. How did he come up with that? Anyway the film (if you can call it that) was alright and I did enjoy the soundtrack and especially the whole thing about Kevin Smith and that other guy (who, even though we never saw his face, had the most uncanny resemblance to Ben Affleck) never showing their faces and always being out of frame and the whole them being in the shadow talking to the camera thing. If you're watching this to see Kevin Smith humor then you'll be a bit disappointed. There was some of it in the ending though and that was a good thing I guess.

For very hardcore Kevin Smith fans only!

Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary (1992)

* (out of 4)

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier made this short in film school and I must admit that I thought it was quite awful. Basically the filmmakers in the film are doing a documentary on a transsexual named Emelda Mae but the production doesn't go as planned.

MAE DAY is a pretty darn awful film and I think both Smith and Mosier know this since their introduction has them darkened out in a joke to keep their identity hidden. Even they call it a piece of junk and that's exactly what it is. There's just nothing funny about anything going on and the overall tone is just all over the place. I'm not sure if the documentary footage was from a real film and Smith and Mosier just added some of the dialogue about a troubled production or what. Either way it's not funny, clever or shows any signs of what the two would eventually do in their careers.

As a huge fan of Kevin Smith, and by extension, everyone involved with Smith, I have spent the best part of the last 15 years consuming everything View Askew/SModcast etc. With that being said, I put off watching this, technically Smith's first film, for some unknown reason. After finally getting round to watching, I have to say, it's not that dissimilar to the linear editing projects I created back in 2004. In fact, had this been produced back then, by a fellow class mate, it would have been the strongest flick in the class. I now have faith that someone in my graduating class will go on to become a filmmaker. Investigating, I looked up everyone involved with the doc, most of which have dabbled every now and then but only Kevin and Scott have gone on to become filmmakers. Ability and natural talent is one thing but I think the elements that will aid you in your struggle are love and dedication for the craft. You have to love movie making, you have to be so in love that the idea of doing anything else for the rest of your life makes you feel sick. That's why Smith and Mosier made it. The foundations were in place when they shot this flick but it wouldn't be until 94, that the due truly found their way.